Introduce Yourself

If we don't know you, please take the time to introduce yourself to the Nebula mailing list. Be elaborate. Tell about your contributions, the bugs that you have filed, the patches that you committed. We need to know that you are a good Eclipse Citizen (Although this is not really necessary if you have a killer UI component to contribute ;).

You can subscribe to the mailing list by writing a mail to the mailing list administrator. How this is done is all explained on this page. Tell us what your plans are and what your UI component does. Then wait for the discussion. If nothing happens for a while: be patient and persistent. We love new contributions.

Code Quality and Citizenship

Once part of the Nebula project, your code is visible to thousands of developers. Make sure that you provide quality code. Also make sure that your widget is stable even if your API is not. The work that you provide represents the complete Nebula community. Ask on the list if you are not sure. Take a look at the widget author tips. The user interface is a very important part of any application.

Once you are in the project, take care of your bug reports and make sure that they are followed up. We require that you do not only take care of your own component but also look after the greater Nebula together with the other active committers.

File a bug to request your contribution

You will be instructed by one of the project leads to file a bug against Nebula core in bugzilla. Before you can do that, you need to get an Eclipse account. This can be done on the Bugzilla landing page. Once the account has been created you need to file a bug against Nebula Core.

You need to include the source code and additional resources like images and stuff like that (one or more plug-in projects) as an attachement. Only the code that you own and have the copyright. Each source member needs to have the standard EPL header like you see in every Eclipse source. Do not include any third party code. Do not include any zip files in the projects. Just your sources and other resources. You can include somoe additional information like links to the working product or links to screenshots.

Provide Legal Information

If your code is to be distributed from Eclipse, we need to you comply to some legal rules. One of the rules is the inclusion of copyright notices in source code and legal documents in features and plug-ins.

We will assess your contribution

We will take a look at your code to assess the quality. If we have problems with it we will let you know on the bug. We will also do a preliminary check on any IP (Intelectual Property) issues. After this is done, one of the project leads will file a new bug in a separate Bugzilla system known as IPZilla. This bug is called a CQ (Contribution Questionnaire).

Here an automatic scanning of the source will take place. It will be examined on foul words, religious statements, terroristic information and all that. You will also need to declare that you have the rights to the code.

Become a committer

Based on your role in the Eclipse community you can become a full committer in the Nebula project. For this you have to show commitment to the project by maintaining your code and play an active role in the Nebula community as a whole. Once this is established, you are invited by one of current committers of the Nebula project to become a committer. If you feel that you are ready for full committer status but you are not yet invited, you can solicit for the position yourself either through the list or by personal mail to the project lead.

The voting process is a formality but you cannot have any votes against you (-1). Once you are voted in (three or more +1), you will be provided with an Eclipse committer ID by the Eclipse Webmasters.

Create a Contribution to the Example View

Nebula contains an overall Example View that provides an extension point. With this extension point you can contribute a Tab to the view that shows all the details of your widget.

All Nebula Widgets are required to contribute to this extension point in a separate bundle.

Organize your Code

You will get your own personal slot in the Nebula git repository.your component will be included into this folder. A GitHub mirror exists, but it cannot be used for pushing. It is also possible to become a sub project of the greater Nebula. You will then operate semi-independent from Nebula and take care of your own builds and
repository.

If you are not your own sub project then you will first start in the Nebula incubation area. You will need to provide several components to become part of the Nebula code.

Lets take a look at the structure of the Oscilloscope widget.

org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.oscilloscope

This is the main code of this widget. It is included in one project but your UI component can span more than one project. Please follow the namespace and discuss on the mailing list what the best name of the component can be.

org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.oscilloscope.example

This is the contribution to the Example view. Every component is required to contribute to the example view. Here you can showcase your widget. Make it as fancy as possible.

org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.oscilloscope.feature

The feature project that will contain only your UI component. Please take a look at the contents of other features for inspiration. Make sure to provide the correct naming and descriptions in the feature and follow the same pattern as the other features.

org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.oscilloscope.snippets

This contains the snippets for your code. Snippets contain short code examples on how to use your widget. This is mandatory. See other snippet projects for some inspiration.

org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.oscilloscope.tests

This contains the unit tests for your component. Obviously this is also mandatory. Please provide a code coverage of at least 80%.

Checkin your code

With your committer account you can check-in your code into git. You will need the ssh link as provided on this page. Once your code is checked in, we have to add you to the build. If you are comfortable with it, see the releng section of the repository and add your component, otherwise drop a line on the list and we are happy to help you with it.

Provide Build information

Build and CI overview

We use tycho to build the Nebula after every commit. Please take a look at the pom.xml files in the other widgets and apply a copy and paste to your projects. Once you think your product is ready for the main stage, give the list a signal. We will then include your widget in the incubation build. It needs to stay there until it is API stable. If you break the build you break everything. So be careful with what you commit, take a keen eye on the build and fix any build errors as soon as possible.

Add your component to the build

Add poms to your folders

You will need to add pom.xml in your plugins and features. The best way to achieve that is to copy pom.xml from existing widget (beware, features, tests and bundles have different poms!). For a component myComponent, all poms will look like this:

The only things to change are artifactId which must be your bundle name as defined in MANIFEST.MF, and packaging (for .examples, use eclipse-plugin).

Contribute to aggregation features and update-sites

Nebula contains aggregation features aimed to ease consumption of Nebula widgets. For all the next step, use dedicated editors in Eclipse (to avoid making mistakes), and always keep .qualifier suffix for versions. Add (assuming your new contribution gets into incubation):

your .example bundle to the releng/org.eclipse.nebula.incubation.examples.feature/feature.xml.

your .feature feature to the included features of releng/org.eclipse.nebula.incubation.feature/feature.xml.

Test it locally before committing

From releng/org.eclipse.nebula.nebula-incubation, run a mvn clean install. Sit down and enjoy. If it looks fine you can push.

Add Component to the Website

Once you are a committer, you are able to checkout the website. If you checkin, the new code is published within 5 minutes. How to check out the Nebula website and make changes is explained here. If you have questions please ask them on the list.